74 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



are fixed into the neck and head, and the animal flies 

 until terror and exhaustion render it an easy prey to 

 its persevering assailant. 



Where civilization has commenced, and around en- 

 campments of large travelling parties, the attack of the 

 feline animals is made more openly, numbers are at- 

 tracted by the hope of plunder, and a straggler from 

 the main body is sure to be seized. Sometimes the 

 flocks which have been put up for the night are open- 

 ly attacked in the folds, and the enclosures into which 

 the Guacha drives his wild horsfe, it the conclusion of 

 his ride, is often entered by the jaguar, and much de- 

 struction effected. In the darkness of the night, cattle 

 and flocks have an instinctive knowledge of the ap- 

 proach of these dire enemies. The beautiful courser 

 knows that his speed will be unavailing, his limbs 

 shake, and his glossy skin becomes frothed with a 

 white sweat. The herds proclaim, by their huddled 

 forms and low bellowings, that the savage is nigh, 

 and a roar of disappointment or exaltation often 

 throws every thing into confusion ; bands are broken, 

 and the animals, in a paroxysm of terror, rush in all 

 directions, breaking down the enclosures, which were 

 their only safety. Now is also the time of attack, 

 and it is seldom made in vain ; in the morning the 

 settler or traveller has to lament the loss of some of 

 his best horses or oxen. Among all the feline ani- 

 mals, the voice is a powerful instrument in over- 

 powering the feelings of their prey ; the sound of it 

 has something harsh, and grating, and terrible, and 



